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THE GAMELAN - An Introduction
Gamelan music is an ancient and beautiful form which has fascinated
Western musicians - from the famous composer Debussy to humble rock musicians
like myself - down the centuries. It originates from the Indonesian islands
of Java and Bali, each representing a contrasting style: Javanese gamelan
music is controlled and spacy, while Balinese gamelan is fast, noisy and
unrestrained. Though different in approach, both styles combine a complex,
liquidly metallic sound texture with intricate, highly sophisticated rhythmic
structures to produce a hypnotic, almost hallucinogenic effect on the listener.
A gamelan is not a single instrument, but a set of (mainly tuned percussion)
instruments which together make up a gamelan ensemble. Every gamelan ensemble
is unique. The size varies, from a small village gamelan of just a few
instruments to the huge 'double gamelan' (80 or so instruments!) used in
the royal courts of Java. There is no standardized tuning, so instruments
from different ensembles are not interchangeable. Balinese instruments
are different from Javanese, and even within Java the instruments' design
and tuning varies from region to region. The 'spirit of the gamelan' lives
in the instruments , not in the players, so each village or temple gamelan
is custom made, individually named ('Spirit Of Perfection' & 'Lake
Of Honey' are two evocative examples) and treated with respect. The instruments
are hand made from bronze, iron or wood, and their construction is a careful
and considered process which can take months. Indonesian culture delights
in the ornate, and the finished instruments in gleaming bronze with their
intricately carved and brightly painted wooden cases (often involving dragon
and floral designs) look, as well as sound, magical.
Gamelan music plays an important part in Indonesian life, both as general
entertainment and accompaniment to religious occasions. Gamelan playing
requires a certain shift in attitude for the Wes-tern player - although
some of the music is very hard, there is none of the individual virtuosity
or competitiveness which typifies much Western music. Instead the emphasis
is on team work, each player relinquishing his or her ego to produce a
smooth and harmonious group sound. What sounds like one melody is often
played by two people playing an interlocking pattern on sarons (metal xylophones)
or bonangs (sets of small tuned gong-chimes). The larger hanging gongs
play a kind of bass line, with the largest gong marking the end of each
melodic cycle. Medium sized gong-chimes (kenong or jenglong) emphasize
important melody notes, often playing on every second or fourth note of
the melody. The ensemble is led by a drummer playing hand drums (gendang
/ kendang) which set the tempo and signal changes, and the melody is elaborated
by singers and flutes (suling). You will find samples of all these instruments
(which together make up a 'loud style' Javanese gamelan) on this CD-ROM.
The clangorous overtones and untempered tuning of gamelan metallophones
do not lend themselves well to conventional European harmony - if you play
a chord consisting of 3 bonang samples, it will sound pretty strident!
However, as an inspirational sound source for rhythmic and melodic material,
these gamelan samples are superb. You can use them together to recreate
the sound of the complete gamelan, or selectively to add exotic new timbres
to your rhythm tracks or electronic compositions.
The recording quality of the studio samples is faultless, and the 'workshop'
sounds have a wild, exciting ambience which immediately kicks rhythm tracks
to life. If the straight gamelan sounds are not bizarre enough for you,
try the UNUSAL STRIKES section for some really mad metallic timbres. I'm
willing to lay money on the fact (safe in the knowledge that it cannot
be disproved) that Debussy would have used these samples (once someone
had explained to him what a MIDI sampler was).
I shall certainly be using them in my recordings, and more importantly,
all you composers, audiophiles and sonic explorers out there are going
to have a great time playing with these brilliant sounds. Hook up your
CD-ROM player, load in the bonang and jenglong, and get going! by Dave
Stewart
PROPELLER ISLAND'S COMPLETE GAMELAN
The gamelan recorded on this CD-ROM consists of the following instruments
:
1 GONG BESAR large bass
gong
1 GONG KECIL small gong
6 JENGLONG tuned high-rimmed
gongs (low pitch)
14 BONANG tuned high-rimmed
gongs (medium pitch)
2 SARON 2 xylophones,
each with 14 metal bars (high pitch), tuned slightly apart to give a 'beating'
effect when played together.
1 GENDANG BESAR large
drum
2 GENDANG KECIL smaller
drums
2 SULING BESAR large flutes
2 SULING KECIL small flutes
I had this Javanese gamelan
specially made for me to sample by a small but famous workshop which also
built the instruments for the Indonesian National Orchestra. Several craftsmen
worked for a month to build it. The instruments are tuned to a special
5 note scale known as 'pelog', a pentatonic tuning system which, it seems,
has often attracted writers of sequenced electronic music!
The samples on this CD-ROM are divided into four main groups:
1. STUDIO SAMPLES
2. MONO SAMPLES
3. WORKSHOP SAMPLES
4. REDUCED SAMPLES
1. STUDIO SAMPLES
These consist of stereo samples, recorded to the highest sound specifications
with a wide variety of performance techniques. The STUDIO SAMPLES section
uses the largest amount of sample memory - between 2 and 19 MB. All recordings
were done in a sound proofed room with a Jacklin Disk and modified RFT/Neuman
mikes. The extraordinary natural stereo effect of each instrument was achieved
by having the other instruments close by, resonating in sympathy as they
would during a gamelan recital (reverb plates work on the same principle).
In order to keep the sampling time within acceptable limits - in some cases
the instruments sustained for 60 seconds - almost all the sounds have been
faded.
On the JENGLONG and BONANG I
have used five different hitting techniques, the first of these being the
orthodox method; the subsequent four I have called 'UNUSUAL STRIKES'.
Traditionally , JENGLONG and BONANG are played by striking the central
boss with a corded beater. Harder hits produce greater volume, but hardly
any variation in tone. In the UNUSUAL STRIKES section, these instruments
are played with a small wooden mallet (usually used for playing the SARON)
in 3 different places, Wall, Edge and Top (see sketch included for exact
positions). Top 1 and Top 2 are medium and hard hits in the same place.
In UNUSUAL STRIKES every hit sounds different, and the overtones produced
make the pitches quite hard to define. I selected the hits I thought would
be most useful and adjusted their tuning by ear for the 'western temperament'
programs. The GENDANG (drums) section features a large number of different
hits to make the creation of natural-sounding grooves easier. There is
a series of 14 hits on the small drum and more than 30 on the large !
The SARONS (xylophones) have two performance variations - in the first
, the notes sustain, but in the second, the notes are damped by gripping
the bar with the hand.
Most of the GONGS are sampled
at half rate, as they contain no high frequencies. This halves the memory
requirement.The SULINGS (flutes) are the only instruments in this section
to be recorded in mono. They are played with and without vibrato, and are
unlooped - however, you will find looped and truncated SULINGS in the MONO
SAMPLES section.
2. MONO SAMPLES
This second group of samples and programs is derived from the stereo
STUDIO SAMPLES section. The layout is just the same, except that here only
one side of the stereo sample is used. The sound quality and selection
is identical with the STUDIO SAMPLES, but only half the amount of memory
is needed. Also included are programs where the mono samples are panned
to create a stereo image.
3. WORKSHOP SAMPLES
So called because they were recorded in a small Indonesian
workshop. Because of the improvised recording situation, the sound
of these samples is a little rough, less pristine than the studio samples,
but this is more than compensated for by their fantastic live atmosphere.
Two different types of microphone were placed wide apart, and the resulting
2 channel recording is represented by two groups of programs, ML (mono
left) and MR (mono right). These two completely different sounding programs
are also combined in a program called MLR (mono left and mono right), to
give a quasi-stereo picture. All the instruments except the SULINGS are
featured here.
4. REDUCED SAMPLES
A repeat of the WORKSHOP SAMPLES, but at half the sampling rate, for
the benefit of those with limited sampler memory. The narrower frequency
range of the WORKSHOP recordings meant that halving their sampling rate
was no problem, and this makes it possible to load in a COMPLETE GAMELAN
of more than 80 samples! These programs are called ORCHESTRA.
5. ATMOSPHERES
Here you will find some 'sounds of Indonesia' which help create the
right atmosphere for gamelan music.The binaural recording captures the
nocturnal murmurings of the jungle, the bustle of the 'open air concert
hall', and a short piece of (Balinese) gamelan music repeated in an endless
loop.
THE PROGRAMS
As the samples in their original tuning consisted of a 5 note scale,
it seemed logical to assign them to the 5 black notes of the keyboard.
Depending on range, the lowest note of a group of samples is assigned to
either C#1, C#2 or F#3. The next black note up gives you the next pitch
up of each respective instru-ment. Some of the programs have the samples
playable over the whole keyboard in an approximation of our western tuning.
The GENDANG (drums) and GONGS use only the white notes, starting on C1.
In the drum programs each white key plays a different sample.
The ORCHESTRA programs, which consist solely of reduced samples, feature
a number of different sample to key assign-ments which use both black and
white keys.
Throughout the program names you will find various abbreviations used
to describe different programming techniques. The abbreviations come after
the instrument name, sometimes in combination.
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